I Can’t Understand It: Questions Put to Anti-China Advocates

Fan Shouyi, CFAU, China

I can’t understand why in a country where a great president warned his people that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” there are a handful of people who won’t feel happy until they succeed in bringing other countries down?

I can’t understand why in a country where black people were delivered from the yoke of slavery, there are some people who give their support to Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader in exile, who is a representative of feudalistic serfdom?

I can’t understand why in the country of Martin Luther King, the tradition of resorting to non-violent means for winning their rights is forgotten, but a handful of people make a big noise and side with Tibetans for independence who are treating even their own kind equally brutally. There is a saying in your language, which goes: “A man is judged by the company he keeps,” so do you feel not ashamed when some of you are in the company of such a spiritual leader and such ruthless rioters?

I can’t understand why some people who know nothing about the ABC of Tibetan history, say categorically that Tibet is an independent state?

I can’t understand why some people who have not been to Tibet, and seen for themselves the concord between Tibetans, Hans and other ethnic groups, refuse to recognize the fact that progress and achievements have been made in Tibet, and it is beginning to prosper?

I can’t understand why some people who don’t make any serious investigation of what the central government has done for the well-being of the Tibetan people and how much input it has made in terms of human, material and financial resources, dismissed all that has been done by the central government as being nothing?

I can’t understand why while people of the Dalai clique have been disrupting the Olympic torch relay along the route, like clowns gone wild—some of them are actually cross-border professional trouble-makers, some people are gloating over it and giving covert assistance?

I can’t understand why members of the parliament of a group of nations behave so excitedly at the moment when they voted for boycotting the upcoming Olympic Games? Your anti-China chorus is not even veiled? Is it not an act of folly on your part to hijack your people and your sportspersons? What does it have to do with us if you refuse to come to Beijing to cheer for your athletes and boost their morale?

I can’t understand why some people are bent on putting the blame on China for the tragic consequences of domestic clash of interests between the two parts of the Sudan? And also tie it with the boycott of the Olympic Games to be held in 2008?

I can’t understand why some of your media are playing footage of police arresting rioters in other countries which happened some time before with captions or comments saying without remorse that it is happening in Lhasa?

Why are you using such cooked-up, deceptive news items to hoodwink the world? Abraham Lincoln put it well: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” The behavior of your media shall be recorded as a classic case study in the history of Western media. Thoughtful students will write their theses on this topic. One anchor person wrapped up his commentary with an insult against 1.3 billion Chinese people, and has not apologized even now. Such a person as he is who shows no respect to others has no right to talk about human rights issues.

I can’t understand why while it is your leaders and tycoons who persuaded China into embracing your idea of globalization, and has founded transnational companies in China and taken away a lion’s share of profits you have generated in China, yet you blame China for climatic changes in the world for the past 200 years?

I can’t understand why your weapons can be sold to whomever you want to, but when China sells some conventional weapons you make a big fuss and try hard to obstruct?

I can’t understand why some toys are not up to standard because of faulty designs of your manufacturers, yet you make a big publicity of the quality of China-made products?

I can’t understand why while every country has its own troubles, decision-makers of your country are using your tax-payers money to shatter other countries to smithereens to fatten the purses of your weapon manufacturers?

When we were still living in the decadent feudal society, China’s doors were forced open by gunboats of Western powers; cases of concessions of land and compensations followed one another; how much wealth had western powers plundered from China? Who can give us the exact figures? Now what wealth and resources you are “taking away” is obtained by peaceful means of globalization. The Chinese people who had been poor for so long and their leaders have finally realized that the Western way of life which we once repudiated as being bourgeois is basically the same as the goals we are striving to attain.

We are enjoying a happy life in such way of living is bringing us but at greater costs than warranted. Should we not enjoy a happy life such as you have been enjoying for so long? Should we not keep up with the Jones? We also want to have very tall buildings, very long bridges, very large ships, and we also want to fly to the Moon, to Mars. We live on the same planet, but do you feel so worried about your neighbor whose life is getting better? Haven’t you reaped more profits in the course of our enjoying the bliss of such life and thereby you become happier than ever before?

I really can’t understand why some of you hate China so much and make things so difficult for us? But there is one thing which I firmly believe: China is getting stronger, and our life is getting better. If you are not happy to see China rise, well and good, don’t engage us, don’t lead your trade delegations to Beijing and go back home with orders worth billions of dollars, don’t take away the cash which the Chinese people have earned with sweat and toil. You will not get any benefits by creating chaos in China. We Chinese have the wisdom to adjust our national policies, and we will make a good job of it all the same.